An Alpha's Choice (Talon Pack #2)(59)

She cupped his face. “I know. And I’m not sad that I’m a Redwood. It’s just different. You’re the Heir, and now I’m your mate. It was always going to be this way. Kade accepted me into the Pack, and that’s why it happened so fast. If I hadn’t been willing, then it would have been different. So just kiss me, mate, and celebrate with me. I won’t mourn what I’ve lost because I’ve gained so much.”

He kissed her as she’d asked, bringing her chest to his so he could feel her heartbeat along his skin and the bond.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling. “Now, how about we test that shifter endurance.”

He snorted then rolled her under him, the movement pulling a groan out of both of them. “Sounds like a plan.”

He’d gladly do this every day until the end of time. He had his mate, his Brynn. He didn’t need anything else.




“If you don’t stop smiling like that, I’m going to punch you,” Brynn said from his side.

Finn smiled a bit wider and brought their clasped hands up to his mouth. “I love you, and I’m walking to the café where I fell in love with you. You’re my mate, and I can feel your wolf. I can’t stop smiling.”

She rolled her eyes but smiled, as well. “You’re ruining your big bad wolf reputation.”

“Gladly. For you.”

“Dork.”

“Your dork.”

“Goddess. If I had known you’d be this mushy…”

“What? You’d just mate me again?” He stole a kiss and kept walking. She leaned into him, and he smiled again. Fuck. He needed to stop smiling so hard. But he couldn’t help it. They’d spent the rest of the day yesterday in bed until they both could barely walk and were in dire need of food and water. Seriously, the best way to spend a day.

Now, they were back to what they had been doing before—proving to the world that wolves were people, too. It shouldn’t matter to the humans that shifters were stronger, faster, and could kill. Humans, as they’d proven, could kill, as well. Humans were a threat just as much as shifters. It depended on the individual if the threat was carried out.

The Packs still didn’t know who’d kidnapped them beyond the two they had met face to face. They did not know who was in charge. That, above all else, scared him. Because they couldn’t continue to fight an enemy they did not know. But they did know the two men who’d attacked them were not alone. There had to be a connection to someone else, and Finn knew the Redwoods and Talons would find it. They had protected their Packs for centuries before this. They had defeated a demon from the very depths of hell. They would find a way to defend themselves from humans.

Humans.

Those without magic or the ability to shift. Yet their greatest enemy.

His Pack’s pain, the Talons’ pain, Franklin's death, would not be in vain.

Brynn squeezed Finn’s hand, and he looked down at her, only to have the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. A group of seven humans came toward them, their hands fisted at their sides and glares on their faces.

Shit.

He was not in the f*cking mood to deal with this. He was just walking outside on a sidewalk with his mate. He hadn’t shifted, he wasn’t even growling or letting his wolf come to the surface. If it hadn’t been him and Brynn, whose faces were clear to the public as known shifters, no one would have recognized their true natures.

Sadly, he had a feeling he was about to see the true natures of those in front of him.

And he wasn’t going to like it.

“You should just go back to your dens. We don’t need your kind here.”

Brynn tilted her head as the man spoke. Finn held on to her hand. Their Alpha had told them that this would be their last outing like this. Things had changed. They were to show they were alive and well to those who may be watching, but after that, the world would have to know that though they might look harmless, and would be to anyone who didn’t harm them, they would never be defenseless.

It had come to this, though it was inevitable.

The world was scared of the unknown, and those in command weren’t ready to show their true motives. The next step was coming, and Finn was ready to defend those he considered his when it happened.

Because he knew there was no way they were coming out of this unscathed. No, not today, not with these people in front of him. But over the long haul. As soon as the Packs took down one cell, one group, or a pair of people, another would pop up into place. They were scattered, their forces unsure and fighting on too many fronts. There would come a time where they would have to band together, and Finn wasn’t sure those he loved would come out of it whole.

And damn it, that was not what he wanted.

He wanted peace.

Only, he knew he’d have to fight for it.

“We are going to go get coffee, and you will be leaving us alone,” Finn said, his voice calm. Too calm—though the humans didn’t know it.

“I said you should go,” the human male repeated.

“We aren’t doing anything wrong,” Brynn said, her voice sharp. “You’re in our way. We will call the authorities if we have to.”

Finn ran a tongue over his teeth. They knew some people on the local police force, but he wasn’t sure whose side those who showed up would be on. His allegiance was to Pack first, all others second. And now it seemed he might have to show that in a more public fashion.